Father-of-four jailed for nightclub assault which broke man's jaw

A 24-YEAR-OLD father of four from Hardwicke was in tears as he was jailed for breaking a man’s jaw outside a Gloucester nightclub.

Marc Shum punched Richard Townsend for bumping into him while leaving The Registry club. At Gloucester Crown Court on Tuesaday, he was jailed for a total of 15 months after being convicted of unlawful wounding and possession of cannabis.

Shum, of Cherry Close, Hardwicke had denied causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Townsend, who had to have a metal plate inserted in his jaw following the attack on April 29, last year.

He had acted in self defence when he hit Mr Townsend, he had told the jury.

Prosecutor Julian Kesner had told the jury at the start of the two day trial "With one powerful punch the defendant broke Mr Townsend’s jaw. It was a cowardly assault, cowardly because Mr Townsend had no inkling he was going to be attacked."

At the latest hearing, Mr Kesner said the victim had undergone an operation, had lost some sensation in his jaw and his bite had been affected by the injury.

Recorder Rosie Collins, sitting as a district judge, also dealt with a charge of cannabis possession that Shum admitted when he appeared before magistrates.

Mr Kesner said that on June 20 last year, police went to the block of flats where Shum live on another matter. He saw them and panicked and threw cannabis in a plastic container out of his window and tried to flush more of the drug down the toilet.

Police found drug paraphernalia in his flat, money and recovered 194 grams of cannabis, with a street value of £2,000.

Mr Kesner said that Shum, who is unemployed, had 10 previous drugs convictions involving possession of cannabis and cocaine.

Dermot Clarke, for Shum, said he accepted the jury’s verdict but he believed he was going to be assaulted.

He regretted his involvement and had made a determined effort to change and no longer went to nightclubs. It was, said Mr Clarke, an isolated incident.

He was currently unemployed but worked occasionally in his parents’ Chinese takeaway restaurant. He had a job offer, working as a computer networking engineer, that would earn him £25,000 a year, Mr Clarke said.

The Recorder said the victim of Shum’s assault was minding his own business when he was attacked. "He bumped into you, or brushed past you. It was entirely accidental and there was no need to react in the way that you did," she said.

Recorder Collins said a custodial sentence was appropriate and she sentenced him to 15 months in prison for the wounding charge and three months for the drugs charge, to run concurrently. Shum was also ordered to pay £600 in compensation.